You couldn't make it up...

Which country would you not put on your list of 20 to plan an anti-racism conference? The UN have decided that their committee to plan the 2009 UN World Conference against Racism (known by some as Durban II) will comprise the following countries. Libya (chairman), Argentina, Armenia, Belgium, Brazil, Cameroon, Chile, Croatia, Cuba, Estonia, Greece, India, Indonesia, Iran, Libya, Pakistan, Norway, Russia, Senegal, South Africa and Turkey. This committee will decide on the modalities and objectives of the 2009 conference. Let's take a look at the members and see if we can work out what their priority will be... Libya, Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan, Turkey and Cuba - I think a denouncement of Israel and much vituperation about Zionism will be approved along with an attack on Islamaphobia.

Libya is a country that is "a racist regime that gave its highest award in 2002 to convicted French Holocaust-denier Roger Garaudy, brutalizes black African migrants, and tortures Bulgarian and Palestinian medics for the crime of being foreigners.” according to Prof. Gerald Steinberg, executive director of NGO Monitor.

Iran under the vehemently anti-semitic President Ahmadinejad is bent on acquiring nuclear weapons while calling for Israel to be wiped off the map. President Ahmadinejad is expected to attempt to use the opportunity to further foment anti-semitism on a global scale. The Organization of the Islamic Conference has already given indications that it will seek to drive through an agenda that would create international rules which would greatly expand concepts of Islamophobia while severely limiting freedom of speech, diminish concern over anti-semitism, and seek to cast Israel as another apartheid South Africa.

I could go on about the other Muslim countries on the committee but I frankly am losing heart.


In 2001, the UN hosted Durban I - an anti-racism conference held in Durban, South
Africa, which degenerated into a platform for some of the worst anti-Semitic propaganda witnessed since Nazi Germany. The final document of the NGO conference which led into the government forum declared Zionism was racism and the government declaration found Israel to be the one and only racist state in the world today. That's Israel, the only real democracy in the Middle East where Muslims have the vote, sit in Parliament, have served as Ministers, have freedom to practice their religion etc. etc. Not Saudi Arabia a country where you may not bring a Christian (let alone Jewish) Bible, where it is forbidden to practice Christianity (let alone Judaism), where non Muslims are forbidden from accessing areas of the country reserved for Muslims only. Not any of the Muslim countries in the Middle East where Jews have been persecuted and expelled over the last century and this one and where you may not enter if you have an Israeli stamp in your passport. This really gets to me, I am a generally calm person but the injustice of this sort of thing really makes my blood boil.

When asked how a state which openly denies the Holocaust could find itself in such a role, a UN spokesperson said "The Preparatory Committee is an inter-governmental body, meaning States were chosen freely to sit on the Prep-Com. It is the Member-States who decide." In fact the countries were selected by the UN's Human Rights Council which has effectively been taken over by the countries of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) thus allowing Iran and Libya access to key roles. The majority of seats on the Human Rights Council are held by the African and Asian regional groups and the OIC has a majority of seats on each of these groups. Western states do not have the votes to block this and so we have Iran and Libya on this committee.

That's it, I have had enough for today, after this load of tosh I need a drink...